Roberto Bartini

Roberto Oros di Bartini
(1897-1974)

Robert Ludvigovich Bartini (or Roberto Oros di Bartini) (1897-1974) was an aircraft designer and scientist born on May 14, 1897 in Fiume, Italy (now Croatia).

Bartini became a member of Italian Communist Party in 1921. He graduated from officer school (1916), flying school (1921) and Milan Polytechnical Institute (1922). After Fascist revolution in Italy, in 1923, he was transferred undercover to USSR as aviation engineer. He occupied several engineering and command positions in VVS RKKA since 1923. He became a head of department of amphibious experimental aircraft design in 1928. He was a head of design department of NII GVF, general designer (chief designer), since 1930.

He was unjustly prosecuted and in 1938-1946 was imprisoned. He continued his work on new aircraft designs as prisoner in TsKB 29 NKVD and in OKB-86 on the territory of Dimitrov Aircraft Factory and Beriev Aircraft Company in Taganrog (1946-1952), then in SibNIA, Novosibirsk. R.L.Bartini was rehabilitated in 1956.